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Any Albertans who have had lapband surgery?


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I am in Central Alberta, I had surgery on Oct 22. I sent in my paperwork by Nov 10, and my check was mailed to my on friday (Jan 2) according to the very nice lady that works for Alberta Health Care in the Out-Of-Countries department. If you go to their website and submit a question regarding surgery outside of Canada someone will email you back with in days. I am getting just over $1200 back, which is better than nothing. Plus I am going to claim it on taxes this year. She bumped my case along for me. She said it was normally at 12 week process to get the check back.

Good luck, let me know who you talk to. The lady that I delt with was soooo awesome. I haven't regretted this desicion one bit.

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I am in Central Alberta, I had surgery on Oct 22. I sent in my paperwork by Nov 10, and my check was mailed to my on friday (Jan 2) according to the very nice lady that works for Alberta Health Care in the Out-Of-Countries department. If you go to their website and submit a question regarding surgery outside of Canada someone will email you back with in days. I am getting just over $1200 back, which is better than nothing. Plus I am going to claim it on taxes this year. She bumped my case along for me. She said it was normally at 12 week process to get the check back.

Good luck, let me know who you talk to. The lady that I delt with was soooo awesome. I haven't regretted this desicion one bit.

Way to jump the queue Joanne, so you're the one who delayed my claim. I'm at week 13 and counting. lol

My wife got back around $1,600, I think they pick a reimbursement number out of the air. It doesn't make sense for large discrepancies between claims.

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Way to jump the queue Joanne, so you're the one who delayed my claim. I'm at week 13 and counting. lol

My wife got back around $1,600, I think they pick a reimbursement number out of the air. It doesn't make sense for large discrepancies between claims.

Tee Hee....Sorry!! But I was very pushy and emailed her all the time!! :rolleyes:

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Wow, I had no idea that I could apply for this, I live in Calgary and contacted AHC to see if they cover the surgery but they said no. I have a few questions:

1. I'm having my surgery next week, Can I apply for some reimbursement when I get home from surgery?

2. What type of information, receipts do you need?

3. I have the Out of Country Claim form, is this what I fill in?

4. Do I need my family Dr to send in a letter?

5. I was questioning as to where or not they thought this surgery was cosmetic or not? I know on the AHC website it says that if you go out of country for surgery they don't cover cosmetic?

This is fantastic I will have this loan paid off sooner than I thought! I knew about the tax break but I didn't know until yesterday when i read this post that I could get some money back from AHC!!! Yahoo!!

Thanks Guys, I hope you can answer some of my questions.

10 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!

Jenelle

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Wow, I had no idea that I could apply for this, I live in Calgary and contacted AHC to see if they cover the surgery but they said no. I have a few questions:

1. I'm having my surgery next week, Can I apply for some reimbursement when I get home from surgery? I filled my claim about 10 days after surgery, because I took that time off. I got a fax number and faxed it in.

2. What type of information, receipts do you need? When you get back, just call Rene and ask him to email you, your surgical report and receipt

3. I have the Out of Country Claim form, is this what I fill in? I didn't fill in any paper work. All my communication with AHC was email, so the lady gave me her fax number and fax a letter just breifely stating what I had done, my AHC number and mailing address and the receipt. That is all they needed

4. Do I need my family Dr to send in a letter? Nope, but you can if you want too.

5. I was questioning as to where or not they thought this surgery was cosmetic or not? I know on the AHC website it says that if you go out of country for surgery they don't cover cosmetic? As far as I know the band is not cosmetic so it is covered. Not the whole amount, but anything will help!!!

This is fantastic I will have this loan paid off sooner than I thought! I knew about the tax break but I didn't know until yesterday when i read this post that I could get some money back from AHC!!! Yahoo!!

Thanks Guys, I hope you can answer some of my questions.

10 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!

Jenelle

Hope this helps. And like I said, I was percistant (sp??) and that moved my claim up. I just emailed her once a month to check the status.

Good luck, and try to have some fun. It is a really neat city, sooo different from what you see up here. Plus the weather will be nice!! Enjoy.

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Just wondering if any Albertans have had lapband surgery and if so, does the Government pay for any of this? Where would I find the form?

The form is AHC 934, google it and it should pop up.

The money trail for Albertans:

1 file AHC 934 and get some reimbursement from the government

2 file with your insurance, mostly likely will get rejected but some are successful (or don't if you know for sure)

3 If your employer has a Private Health Spending Account, you can file under that plan as usually anything considered medical expenses for tax purposes can be covered by the PHSA

4 file with your income tax, anything over the 3% of income threshold will generate a tax credit

If you are self employed, look at creating your own PHSA, the savings from having your business pay for the procedure may be worth the expense of creating your own plan. You need to review the math though, as it may not.

ps It might be 'cold for mexico' but its not minus 40 cold.

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  • 1 month later...

So now that I have had my surgery and have the time to get this paper work pulled together I have a few questions.

Did you have to get a letter from your doctor stating why the services where obtained out of country?

Was there any thing else besides your medical report and break down of cost of services that you send in?

This is a list that I found, i believe it refers to the claim form, are these the steps and information that you attached to your claim form? By the sounds of it, non of us work get money back because the service is available in Canada.

http://www.health.alberta.ca/documents/OOCHSC-Info-Sheet.pdf

So I thought I would ask to see what you sent in!

Please help me sort this out! I think I should call them

Jenelle

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So now that I have had my surgery and have the time to get this paper work pulled together I have a few questions.

Did you have to get a letter from your doctor stating why the services where obtained out of country?

Was there any thing else besides your medical report and break down of cost of services that you send in?

This is a list that I found, i believe it refers to the claim form, are these the steps and information that you attached to your claim form? By the sounds of it, non of us work get money back because the service is available in Canada.

http://www.health.alberta.ca/documents/OOCHSC-Info-Sheet.pdf

So I thought I would ask to see what you sent in!

Please help me sort this out! I think I should call them

Jenelle

I sent in the receipt and the surgical report that I got from Rene. And I sent a cover letter stating all my personal information (AHC number, address and such) plus what my starting weight and BMI were and faxed it in. 9-10 weeks later I got my cheque. I did not include a letter from my doctor, from my weight and height it was easy to tell that I fell into the morbibly obese category. They don't need a reason for us choicing to go out of country. They only pay the portion of what it would cost for the doctor doing the surgery and the anthiesologist (bad spelling!! sorry). AHC knows that it is a very long wait for these services. You can call AHC and ask to talk to the person that is in charge of "Out-Of-Country Claims" or on the website there is a place to email a question, and the lady that i was emailing back and forth with answered me in less that 2-3 days. She is the one that told me what to send and where to fax all my information in. She was super helpful!! I would try that route or calling if you still have questions.

Hope this helps

Joanne

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